The present invention relates to an analogue display timepiece allowing reading of first conventional time related information by means of hours and minutes indicator members, as well as simultaneous reading of second time related information based on a decimal system wherein time is divided into at least thousandths of a day.
An alternative system for measuring time has been recently proposed wherein the day is no longer divided into hours, minutes and seconds as is conventionally the case, but into thousandths of a day commonly called by the name xe2x80x9cbeat xe2x80x9d and the duration of which is equivalent to 86.4 seconds. Twenty-four hours are thus divided into 1,000 thousandths of a day or xe2x80x9cbeats xe2x80x9d, time evolving between the values of xe2x80x9c000xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c999xe2x80x9d. This alternative system for measuring time is particularly intended for use by populations of internauts and for dispensing with notions of space and time zones. This time measuring system is also intended to be clearly distinguished from conventional time information.
A general object of the present invention is to propose an analogue display timepiece conventionally including a pair of hours and minutes indicator elements for displaying conventional time related information (for example the local time) and further allowing time related information based on the aforementioned decimal system to be read simultaneously.
More particularly, it is desired to propose a timepiece requiring a small number of modifications with respect to a conventional analogue display timepiece.
An analogue display timepiece including hours and minutes hands for the display of conventional time related information, and display means for second time information based on the aforementioned decimal system is already known from Swiss Patent No. 690 254. According to this document, the decimal time information is read by means of a single additional hand (preferably a hand completing one revolution per twenty-four hours) which rotates facing a scale of thousandths of a day arranged, for example, on an external bezel mounted on the timepiece, this external bezel preferably being rotatably mounted so as to allow adjustment of the decimal time information as a function of the time zone in which the user is located.
Apart from the thousandth of a day scale added to the external bezel, the timepiece disclosed in Swiss Patent No. 690 254 does not require any particular modification with respect to a conventional universal timepiece, such as the universal timepiece disclosed in Swiss Patent No. 451 827. This document in fact discloses a universal analogue display timepiece including hours and minutes hands, as well as an additional 24 hour hand rotating facing an external rotating bezel bearing the markings of the twenty-four time zones.
The timepiece of Swiss Patent No. 690 254 has a major drawback, particularly regarding its application to a wristwatch, in the sense that the user cannot obtain an accurate reading of the time based on the decimal system. Indeed, given the small size of a wristwatch, it is in practice impossible to add a high number of graduations to the bezel (or to the timepiece dial) in a legible manner. As can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 of Swiss document No. 690 254, graduation marks are made at the best every five thousandths of a day, i.e. for intervals of time equivalent to 432 seconds, namely a little more than seven minutes. Given the dimensions, one cannot in practice envisage making a higher number of graduation marks (in this case 200 marks). At this resolution, the time reading is random and may result in reading errors of several tens of minutes.
A more adequate solution allowing sufficiently accurate reading of the decimal time information must thus be found so that it can be used as a reference time for the purpose of fixing a meeting, for example, or the occurrence of an event.
In order to answer these objects, the present invention thus concerns an analogue display timepiece whose features are listed in independent claim 1.
Advantageous embodiments of the present invention form the subject of the dependent claims.
According to the invention, the time information based on the decimal system is obtained by the combined use of a minutes indicator member and complementary analogue display means indicating at least the approximate decimal value, expressed in thousandths of a day, of full hours (1h, 2h , . . . 23h, 24h), namely every 41 or 42 thousandths of a day (1 hour is equivalent to approximately 41.7 thousandths of a day) at least. According to the invention, the minutes indicator member indicates, on the one hand, the minute as is conventionally the case, and, on the other hand, a corresponding decimal value which is added to the approximate decimal value indicated by the complementary analogue display means. Despite the approximation of the full hours (the error of approximation never exceeds a thousandth of a day), the minutes indicator member and the additional display member provide the user with sufficiently accurate time information for him to be able to rely on this decimal time information for the purpose of fixing a meeting in particular.
Preferably, the approximate decimal values are borne by a display member which can be adjusted in rotation, independently of the hours and minutes indicator members, in order to allow correction of the decimal time information as a function of the time zone in which the user is located.
Generally, two preferred embodiment principles of the present invention may be distinguished. According to a first embodiment principle, the decimal time information is indicated by the minutes and hours indicator members used for reading the conventional time information. The complementary analogue display means then rely on an additional display member which can be adjusted in rotation on which at least the indications of the approximate decimal values of the full hours are shown (cf. FIGS. 1 to 3, and 8).
According to a second preferred embodiment principle, the decimal time information is indicated by the minutes indicator member and by another additional member driven by the movement different from the hours indicator member. Two alternative embodiments of this second principle are described. One consists in using an additional indicator member driven by the movement, this indicator member being associated with a display member which can preferably be adjusted in rotation and on which at least the approximate decimal values of the full hours are shown (cf. FIGS. 4 to 6). The other alternative consists in directly driving, via the movement, the display member on which the indications of the approximate decimal values are shown, the indicator member being replaced in this case by a fixed index added to the timepiece (cf. FIG. 7).
The two aforementioned embodiment principles have in particular, as common features, the fact that the minutes indicator member and the complementary analogue display means together allow accurate reading of the time information based on the aforementioned decimal system.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear more clearly upon reading the following detailed description, made with reference to the annexed drawings given by way of non-limiting examples and in which: